More onions

Twenty thousand hectares of land were used to grow onions in the Netherlands in 2000, more than one and a half times the area of this crop in 1990.

Area of onions

By far most onions harvested are sown onions; the total crop of sown onions was 820 million kg last year, 9% more than in 1999.

The average yield per hectare of sown onions last year was 62,000 kg. In Flevoland, where half the total amount of sown onions are grown, the average yield per hectare is usually one quarter higher than in the rest of the Netherlands.

Losses

Crop losses, onions lost after being pulled from the soil, is substantial. Wet autumns, like that of 1998 cost about one fifth of the crop. Usually, less than 10% of pulled onions are not suitable for consumption. However, sometimes so much of a batch is unsuitable for consumption, that the whole batch is not fit to be sold and is lost entirely.

Folkert van der Werf